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AN 



EULOGIUM 



IN MEMORY 



OF THE LATE 



DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, 

Professor of the Institutes anil Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Practice in the 
. University of Pennsylvania. 



DELIVERED AND PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE GRADUATES 
AND STUDENTS OF MEDICINE IN SAID UNIVERSITY, 



In the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, on Thursday, 
the 8th of July, 1813, 

JLIAM STAUGHTON, D. D. 






1 ■ 



PHILADELPHIA. 

'UBUSHED BY RERUEST OF THE GRADUATES. 

1813. 



TO THE REV. DR. STAUGHTON. 

Sir, 
Permit us in the name of the late Graduates and Students of the 
University of Pennsylvania, to tender our grateful thanks to you, for 
your appropriate, learned and eloquent Eulogium, to the revered 
memory of our late Professor Dr. Benjamin Rush, and to request a 
copy for publication. 

JOHN CROGHAN, 
JOHN S. HARDAWAY, 

EDWARD BRUX, V Committee of Arrangement. 

N. NANCREDE, 
JOHN F. WATERH( 
Philadelphia, July 8th, 1813. 



-X 

i 



EULOGIUM, &c. 



I RISE, at the request of the graduates and students 
in medicine, of the University of Pennsylvania, to 
offer a tribute, defective I fear, but sincere and re- 
spectful, to the talents and character of the late Pro- 
fessor Rush. 

It has been no inconsiderable part of the wisdom 
of nations, by grateful monuments to honour the 
memory of men who have promoted the public good. 
The harps of minstrels, the chisel of the statuary, the 
pencil of the artist, the bold designs of the architect, 
the votes of senates and the eloquence of orators 
have been charged with the sacred service. Eulogy 
has doubtless in some nations and instances swelled 
itself into extravagance and crime. Divine honours 
were never the desert of mortals, and to them were 
never tendered, without an insult on the perfections of 
the infinite Creator. And yet, statesmen and generals, 
philosophers and physicians have been deified; not 
simply in the licentious effusions of the poet, but by 
the erection of temples and altars, the imposition of 
victims, and the offering of prayers. With this folly 
Socrates himself is chargeable, who, a little before his 
dissolution, enjoined Crito to exonerate him of a vow, 
by offering a cock to /Esculapius. Egypt was the 



mother, and Greece and Rome the adopters of this 
irreverence to the Supreme. 

The encomiast has, moreover, sometimes so de- 
graded himself and his office, as to have ascribed high 
virtues, and presented garlands of renown to men 
whose career has been the curse, and whose decease 
the relief of mankind. Infamy itself has sometimes 
audaciously bound on its forehead, the frontlet of 
honour. " Had we no other historians of the Roman 
" emperors," says Mr. Addison, " but those we find 
" on their money, we should take them for the most 
" virtuous race of princes mankind were ever blessed 
" with; whereas, if we look into their lives, they ap- 
" pear, many of them, such monsters of lust and 
" cruelty, as are almost a reproach to human nature. 
" Tiberius, on his coins, is all mercy and moderation; 
" Caligula and Nero, are fathers of their country; 
" Galba, the patron of public liberty, and Vitellius, 
" the restorer of the city of Rome. In short, if you 
" have a mind to see the religious Commodus, the 
" pious Caracalla, and the devout Heliogabalus, you 
" may find them in the inscription or device of their 
4< medals." 

The abuse of panegyric offers no argument against 
its propriety and usefulness. Encomiums may be pro- 
nounced without derogating from the glory of Jehovah. 
Counterfeit circulation only enhances the value of 
genuine coin, as does a mischievous empyricism the 
worth of medical science. Under the inspiration of his 
God, David delivered his eulogium on the death of 
Jonathan and Saul. He describes them as " swifter 
" than eagles and stronger than lions." Who can be 



insensible to the generosity and delicacy of his heart, 
when he exclaims, " Ye daughters of Israel, weep 
" over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other de- 
" lights. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of 
" the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high 
" places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jona- 
" than: very pleasant hast thou been to me!" 

The frequent acquaintance, as he drops the guileless 
tear on the grave of the amiable Rush, shall involun- 
tarily cry, " very pleasant hast thou been to me." 

Many of the fathers of the christian church by their 
example, sanction attempts to display and immortalize 
virtuous character. The funeral orations of Eusebius 
on Constantine, of Nazianzen on Basil and Caesarius, 
and those of Ambrose on Valentinian and Theodosius. 
with others of a similar nature, the world possesses. 

" Great men," says Rollin, " are the property of a 
" republic." Admit they are such — a republic has a 
debt of gratitude to discharge. The pleasures of a 
good conscience, and the approbation of God, are 
paramount to all other retribution; yet the citizen, 
whose life is consecrated to the good of a community, 
deduces an inexpressible pleasure from the hope that 
his memory after death will be grateful to those 
whom while living he laboriously served. When the 
magistrates of Larnpascum, the place of the residence 
of Anaximander, inquired in what way they should 
honour his name, his wish, alike modest and senti- 
mental, was that the boys might have leave to play on 
the anniversary of his decease. The mind that is dead 
to the veneration of posterity, scarce ever deserves it. 
Eulogy, the meed of merit, is soothing to the grief of 



surviving relatives, it calls into action the most manly 
affections of the heart, it gives tone and fire to youthful 
ardour, and makes us, in spite of conscious incapacity 
and indolence, aspire to become the sublime we draw. 
Suspect me not of the temerity of attempting the full 
length portrait of Dr. Rush. I offer only a few out- 
lines, and give shadow but to an eye or a hand. The 
thought consoles me, that for near half a century Phi- 
ladelphia has been contemplating the fair original. 

It was the predicted and is the unequalled privi- 
lege of the Jew, to be able to trace back his peculiar 
lineage for more than three thousand years. Except- 
ing in the idle genealogy of nobles and sovereigns, 
men for the most part having recognized a second or 
third degree of descent, totally lose sight of ancestry 
until they arrive at Adam, the progenitor of us all. 
More remotely than is usual, we are happy in being 
able to discover the parentage of Dr. Benjamin Rush. 
His ancebtor, who first came to America, was Cap- 
tain John Rush. He landed in Pennsylvania in 1683, 
and settled at Byberry, thirteen miles from Philadel- 
phia. It may gratify curiosity to learn, that he was an 
inflexible republican. He was personally known to 
Oliver Cromwell, and in his army, with distinguished 
reputation, commanded a troop of horse. One day, see- 
ing his mare come into the camp without him, Crom- 
well supposed he had been killed, and lamented him, by 
saying, " he has not left a better officer behind him." 
His sword, his watch and his bible are in possession of 
the family. He died at his plantation, in 1699. His age 
was about 80. He was the parent of ten children. Him- 



self and family became members of the Baptist society. 
Elizabeth his eldest daughter arrived with her hus- 
band in Pennsylvania, in 1682, having crossed the 
ocean in the same ship with the celebrated William 
Penn. They settled in By berry, on five hundred acres 
of land. William, the Captain's eldest son, died in 
By berry in 1688, five years after his arrival in Ame- 
rica. James, the senior son of William, was " an in- 
" genious, active, worthy man, and so exact in busi- 
" ness, that when he died, (which was in the year 
" 1727,) he did not leave a single debt behind him." 
He was buried in his family grave-yard, near his 
house. On his head-stone, the artless but impressive 
lines are still legible, 

I've try'd the strength of death at length, 

And here lie under ground; 
But I shall rise above the skies, 

When the last trump shall sound. 

John Rush, the honoured father of our deceased friend, 
was the oldest son of James. He was a man of a meek 
and peaceable spirit, and so just in his intercourse 
with the world, that it was said of him by a neighbour, 
" more could not be uttered in favour of a man's in- 
" tegrity than that he was as honest as John Rush." 
He died July 26, 1751, in this city, and lies buried in 
Christ church grave-yard. " Let me be buried by his 
" side, (said his amiable widow on her death-bed,) he 
" was an angel to me while he lived." 

And such to thee, thou faithful relict of the dead! 
thou daughter of grief! was THY Rush. May the 



God of angels sustain thee, and the recollection be 
cherished, that « smitten friends" continue angels still 
The 24th of December, 1745, old style.L the 
bn-th-day of the deceased Professor. He was born on 
handsome farm of one hundred acres, lying on Poques- 
.on Creek, m Bybcrry. The anxious care of his excel- 

school of the Rev. Dr. Samue. Finley, i„ Maryland, 
on the border of Pennsylvania: a gentleman whose 
talents were em.nent, and whose death was a delight- 
ful scene of Christian exultation; a scene which b V 
a master's hand, Dr. Mason has contrasted with the 
frivolous exit of Mr. Hume. Within these walls his 
remains are sleeping, in hope of a joyful resurrection. 
With the history of young Rush, during his early 
pupilage, our acquaintance is inconsiderable We 
know not if "foremost" 'twas his joy 



to cleave 



With pliant arms the glassy wave, 

To chase the rolling circle's speed 

Or urge the flying ball! 

Under the tuition of Dr. Finley he continued, until in 
the year 1759, he entered Nassau Hall, at Princeton. 
Yes! Nassau Hall, thou alma mater of many of the most 
distinguished civilians and patriots, physicians and di- 
vines, over whom America has rejoiced-iWz w 
thy son! The institution was at this time under the 
care of the pious and eloquent President Davies. The 
powers of the pupil began how to frondesce and 
blossom. Goldsmith used to say he never was parti- 
cularly attached to the belles lettres till thirty. The 



taste of Rush was charmed and his judgment ripened 
by the beauty and splendours of fine writing at fifteen. 
He attempted composition, and was astonished to find 
his efforts succeeded with the universal gratulations of 
those whom it was an honour to please. At such suc- 
cess, to use the words of Dr. Young, the juvenile 
composer usually " starts as at a meteor in the night; 
" he is much surprized, he can scarcely believe it true, 
" During this happy confusion, it may be said to him 
" as to Eve at the lake, 

" What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself!" 

His approving preceptor, a model of oratory, found 
occasion often to say in substance as did Erasmus of 
Melanchton, " What hopes may we not entertain of 
" one, who though as yet very young and almost a 
" boy, is equally to be admired for his knowledge of 
" both languages? what quickness of invention! what 
" purity of diction! what powers of memory! what 
" variety of reading — what modesty and gracefulness 
" of behaviour." We look with interest on the rili 
whose continuous current promises to exhibit a Dela- 
ware or an Amazon. 

On his beginning to discover some talent for pub- 
lic speaking, his friends recommended, and his heart 
began to approve, the study of the law. The dissua- 
sions of Dr. Finley were successful in diverting him 
from the project of legal enterprise to medical pur- 
suits. To serve with reputation, his country, at the 
bar, and on the bench, was reserved for the Hon. 
Jacob Rush, his younger brother. In the fall of 1760 
he received the degree of batchelor in the arts, and 
R 



10 



commenced the study of medicine under the direction 
of the late Dr. John Redman, of this city. So intense 
was his application, that during the six years which 
he spent in the family of his beloved instructor, he was 
absent only two days from his business. Juvat ipse 
labor: toil itself was pleasure. In the August of 1766, 
he left his natal shores, and visited Great Britain, with 
the view of completing his medical course. Two 
years afterwards, in the university of Edinburgh, a 
school of medicine, which in Europe has long been 
without a rival, Dr. Robertson, the historian, Dr. 
Cullen, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Black, presented him 
his medical diploma. The subject of his thesis was 
the Digestio?! of Foods. While yet a student at Edin- 
burgh, the American society for promoting useful 
knowledge, evinced its sagacity in the detection of 
forming talent by electing him a member. 

Edinburgh tendered him the freedom of the city, 
and he was chosen an associate of its revolution club. 

He passed the winter, succeeding his graduation, in 
London. His mind was now like the fertile vernal 
glebe, delicately sensible to every zephyr and every 
ray, and disposed to repay, with its own increase, the 
influence it enjoyed. The following spring he visited 
Paris, and from thence, in the summer, recrossed the 
Atlantic, to consecrate the first fruits of his acquisi- 
tions and talents to the service of his native country. 
His country was not slow in appreciating his merits. 
He fixed on Philadelphia as his residence. His prac- 
tice, as is common with young adventurers in medi- 
cine, was, for a short time, at first laborious and almost 
without compensation. But the encouragement of- 



11 

fered him by an eminent divine of this city, he soon 
realized, " Be thou faithful over a few things, and I 
" will make thee ruler over many." He was soon 
called into the abodes of wealth and character, and 
enrolled for life physician of themselves and their 
offspring. He ascended the chair of Professor of 
Chemistry in the college of Philadelphia, by the 
unanimous vote of its curators as early as the month 
of August, 1769. His name rose like the sun, and 
soon began to be pronounced with respect in every 
circle of science and medicine in the colonies of 
America and in Europe. In 1772 he was elected 
member of the London society for the encouragement 
of arts and manufactures. He solicited, and in the 
year 1776, a year by America never to be forgotten, 
received the hand of Miss Julia Stockton, of Prince- 
ton, New Jersey; a lady every way suited to be the 
wife of a Rush. Her tenderness, her wisdom, her pru- 
dence, her piety ministered solace to his sorrows, in- 
formation to his counsels, dignity to domestic arrange- 
ment, and ardour to his devotions. In 1777, he received 
the appointment of physician general of the American 
army, which office the ensuing year he resigned. He 
succeeded Dr. Morgan in the chair of the theory and 
practice of physic in the college of Philadelphia, in 
the year 1789. On the consolidation of this institu- 
tion with the university, four years after, he occupied 
the chair of professor of the institutes of medicine 
and clinical practice, and only at the call of death 
resigned it. 

Yes, death has called, and Rush has obeyed the man- 
date. For the circumstances of his dissolution, the 



12 

public are indebted to the enlightened detail of Dr. 
Dorsey. " During the last year or two of his life, a 
" cough, which he familiarly called his tussis senilis, 
" increased very considerably. Having in early life, 
" suffered severely from some pulmonary symptoms, 
" which were thought to wear a consumptive aspect, 
" he never believed that he should live to be old. 
" After visiting his patients as usual, on Wednesday, 
" the 14th of April, after tea, in the evening, he was 
" attacked with a violent chill, which was relieved 
" by some brandy and water. In the night he awoke 
" with a very severe pain in the side, attended with 
" great difficulty in breathing. He sent for a bleeder, 
" and ordered him to take eight or ten ounces of 
" blood from his arm. After losing the blood he was 
" relieved and slept. A medical friend was requested 
" to visit him the next morning; finding him weak 
" and exhausted, he administered some wine-whey, 
" which was evidently beneficial. His pulse, how- 
il ever, became gradually weaker, and his symptoms 
" soon assumed the prevailing typhus diathesis. Sti- 
" mulating remedies were administered by his phy- 
; ' sicians to as great an extent as the stomach would 
" bear, and external irritation kept up, but with- 
" out effect. About five o'clock in the afternoon of 
" the 19th of April, perfectly rational, and expect- 
" ing with the utmost composure his approaching 
" dissolution, he expired." His age sixty-eight years 
and three months. The bells, with muffled tongue, 
tolled not the tidings of his death. He had forbidden 
them. He had seen in his practice ill effects result to 
his patients from the intelligence they have conveyed. 



and wished as to himself, that testimonies of personal 
respect should be sacrificed to public good. Our friend 
is gone. No more shall we hear his luminous and ora- 
cular instructions, in the parlour circle, or from the 
Professor's chair. The eye of intelligence has lost its 
brightness. The furrowed cheek offers its channels no 
longer to the tears of sympathy. The whitened locks 
engage our reverence no more. Death has changed 
the countenance, and the meek light of wisdom it ex- 
hibited has vanished. A minister of health, no more 
shall we see him rolling through our streets in his 
plain vehicle, the faithful African at his side. No more 
shall he dispel the gloom from the chambers of dis- 
ease, hear the blessings of convalescents, or alleviate 
the struggles of expiring life. His loved habitation, 
the temples of devotion, welcome his footsteps no 
more. 

He has lived for his country, and in a special degree, 
citizens of Philadelphia, he has lived for you. The 
consciousness of your loss and your gratitude for his 
toils, you have evinced by that general sadness which 
overspread the city, when report announced Br. Rush 
is dead. From crouded windows and streets as to the 
church yard his remains were borne, the countenances 
of thousands had, in common with those of the long 
procession of divines, physicians, philosophers, mer- 
chants and tradesmen, but one expression. To have 
given utterance to the universal feeling, you need onlv 
have exclaimed, our father ', our friend is no ?nore!* 

• I am happy in being able to state, that he has left his own 
life in writing, which I trust before long the public will possess, 



14 

Permit me the pleasure of placing before you, in 
different lights, the character of this distinguished 
man. View him as a scholar, a philosopher, a patriot, 
a physician, a christian. 

The attainments of Rush, while a student, were 
highly respectable. His facility in acquiring languages 
was great. With the Latin, Greek, French, Italian and 
Spanish, he was familiar. His quotations from the 
Roman classics, with which his conversation in the 
company of the learned was embellished, were apt and 
beautiful: offered with an easy grace and timely pro- 
priety, they were " apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
His favourite author was Tacitus. A volume of his 
works he usually carried with him, and improved by- 
reading him the leisure that the interval of a few 
minutes before he could enter the room of a patient 
would offer. Of the writings of this " elegant and en- 
lightened" author, as he denominates him, he has 
made frequent use, particularly in his " account of the 
German inhabitants of Pennsylvania." It has been 
objected against the deceased professor, that he was 
unfriendly to the acquirement of learned languages. 
He certainly, like Pasor, considered some of the an- 
cient classics as "unfavourable to morals and religion." 
He objected to their being studied " too early in life," 
and could not persuade himself that they were a 
" necessary branch of liberal education." But he did 
not contend for the extinction of a critical intimacy 
with the elegancies of Athenian and Roman literature. 
"Let them," he says, " like travelling, become a part 
" of the luxury of education." He has met the argu- 
ments usually adduced in favour of the dead languages. 



15 

arising from their importance to a critical acquaintance 
with our own, from the fine models of eloquence and 
taste which they supply, from the consent of European 
nations in making them the vehicle of their discoveries, 
and from their importance in the learned professions. 
If he has not obviated the force of these arguments, he 
has at least discussed them with ingenuity and can- 
dour. He seems to have contemplated classic learning 
in the same light as did Horace a cluster of elegant 
ideas. The grove, the altar of Diana, the meandering 
of a current hurrying through the fields, the river 
Rhine and the rainbow are beautiful, but in the in- 
troduction to the poem, non erat his locus, there was 
no room for these. Other branches of education more 
profitable to the pursuits of mechanism and merchan- 
dize, must inevitably be neglected where early years 
are consumed in the study of Latin and Greek. He 
considered human life too short, and the field of medi- 
cine particularly, too extensive, to waste a long period 
in attaining what could never be applied to practical 
purposes. I offer these remarks with the design of 
stating distinctly Dr. Rush's views. I profess not to 
vindicate them: this he has done himself, and by all 
who perceive their force, they will be adopted. Perhaps 
Dr. Rush, in asserting that a sufficiency of classic 
learning by a common capacity, may be acquired in a 
year or two, as much undervalues the worth of this 
species of literature, as Dr. Samuel Johnson and such 
as have adopted his views, have erred in representing 
it as inseparable from mental eminence. He considered 
himself as writing for the profit of the youth of a 



16 

young but growing republic. His aims were like his 
patriotism, pure; and like his heart, benevolent. 

His acquaintance with the sciences was general. If 
into some his leisure and inclination had prevented his 
wading deeper than to collect the pebble and the shell, 
from the profound of others he brought up and ex- 
hibited the pearl and the gem. His progress in uni- 
versal knowledge was assisted greatly by his powers 
of retention. What he had once inscribed on the tablet 
of his memory was rarely effaced. It was one of the 
aphorisms of Lord Bacon, " reading makes a full man, 
writing a correct man, and speaking a ready man." 
Dr. Rush was always full, correct, and ready. His 
reading was extensive. He marked down every idea 
that had any claim to originality, beauty, energy, or 
usefulness. Few men ever collected from books and 
life, so large a body of literary and medicinal anec- 
dotes and facts as himself. His memoranda are a rich 
museum. His penetration could detect the gold in its 
ore, and discover mines where thousands saw only 
desart. Sometimes he had recourse to what the rheto- 
ricians call topical memory, and his recollection would 
receive aid from a knot, or the fixing the eye for a few 
moments on some object occurring frequently to his 
senses: but the vigorous interest he felt in all his en- 
gagements, and his correct arrangement of ideas in 
his mind, rendered such auxiliaries not frequently 
necessary. 

The mind of Professor Rush was characterized by 
a manly independence. In science, religion, and medi- 
cine, he was an eclectic. His intellect was a Colum- 
bus, mistaking sometimes the nature and extent of 



17 

discovery, but delighting in voyage, calm, persevering 
and successful. Longinus represents liberty as the 
nurse of genius: genius does honour to its foster- 
mother. With greater emphasis than Watts might 
Rush have exclaimed: 

Custom that tyranness of fools, 

That leads the learned round the schools 

In magic chains of forms and rules, 

My genius storms her throne. 
No more, ye slaves, with awe profound, 
Beat the dull track nor dance the round, 
Loose hands and quit the enchanted ground, 

Knowledge invites us each alone. 

The science of anatomy received no light from 
Egyptian embalmers. Mt re action, without observa- 
tion and inference, profits mankind but little. The 
mind of the deceased was inquisitive and observant. 
It delighted to educe theory from practice, as well as 
to combine practice with theory. 

We have stated that Dr. Rush was elected, while 
yet a pupil at Edinburgh, a member of the American 
Society for promoting useful knowledge. In June 
1769, this society and the American Philosophical 
Society effected a junction, under the name of the 
American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia 
for the promotion of useful knowledge. Of this in. 
stitution he was chosen in 1770, a curator, and re- 
peatedly held the vice-presidency. He regretted the 
suspension of the meetings of the society by the re- 
volutionary war; before and after which he was an 
active member. In February, 1786, he pronounced 
before the society an ingenious oration, entitled " an 



18 

" enquiry into the influence of physical causes upon 
" the moral faculty." He observes in the preface, that 
if the facts and principles contained in the oration 
" have the same operation upon the mind of the reader 
" that they had upon the mind of the author, they will 
" at first be doubted, afterwards believed, and finally 
"they will be propagated." In the first Presbyterian 
church in this city, in December, 1796, he delivered 
an eulogium agreeably to appointment, intended to 
perpetuate the memory of the late president of the 
society, Dr. Rittenhouse. The society by its resolu- 
tion, declared it " eloquent, learned, comprehensive 
and just." One passage from the eulogium I cannot 
deny myself the pleasure of quoting. " As a com- 
" panion," Dr. Rittenhouse " instructed upon all sub- 
'* jects. To his happy communicative disposition, I 
" beg leave to express my obligations in this public 
" manner. I ca;; truly say after an acquaintance with 
" him for six and twenty years, that I never went into 
" his company without learning something." My 
acquaintance with Professor Rush has existed but 
about seventeen years, but certainly I was never in his 
company without learning something. I have heard 
of several in our city who have known him forty or 
fifty years, who have made a like observation. A mind 
calm and contented is a perpetual feast to itself, but 
how vast must the resources be of such minds as can 
supply a continual intellectual feast to others. In con- 
versation, whether familiar or philosophic, few were 
his equals. His anecdotes were always happy, and his 
allu ions and analogies delicate and striking. No man 
could succeed in placing a thought in the most con- 



19 

vincing and engaging light better than he. His fancy 
was excursive, but his judgment sedate. One nation in 
Et. rope is famed for invention, another for the appli- 
cation of discoveries to useful purposes. The mind of 
Rush was conspicuous for both. 

The tumult of political life ill agrees with the silent 
pursuits of science. But Dr. Rush was a patriot, a 
decided whig. When he saw the interests of his be- 
loved country endangered, he sprung into the lines of 
the foremost to assert her rights. His early exertions, 
his bold conceptions, the nervous effusions of his pen, 
and the mild intelligence of his counsels assisted in 
lifting the colonies of America into free and indepen- 
dent states. He sat in congress in the year 1776, and 
has enrolled his name on the sacred charter of Ameri- 
can liberty. He was elected member of the state con- 
vention for the adoption of the federal constitution. 
Under his parent state he never held any office; and 
under the general government was only treasurer of 
the mint. The cause of freedom, and the universal 
happiness of man, were dear to his inmost heart. He 
exulted for joy as he beheld their approach, as exults 
the Siberian on his loftiest mountain when after months 
of darkness he first views the returning sun. America 
shared his best affections, but he felt himself like Cato 
born for the human race. 

The niche in the temple of society which Professor 
Rush was peculiarly destined to fill, was that of a 
physician. Of this he was convinced, and to the science 
of medicine he directed the forces of his mind. Other 
studies were his visits, this was his home. His arm, 
like that of /Esculapius on his coins, was bared for 



20 

medical exertion. His practice was large, and his 
labours Herculean; but notwithstanding his natural 
constitution was feeble, and required perpetual vigi- 
lance to preserve its tone, he so systematized his en- 
gagements, as that by giving to each its hour, he could 
fulfil the claims of all. His confidence in medical 
remedies was strong. He would seldom despair of 
cure or relief, until death tore the patient from his 
superintendence. The very idea of incurable diseases 
was abhorrent from his judgment and feelings. He 
was of opinion, that for every disease the God of 
mercy had provided a remedy, and that its non-dis- 
covery argued only the imperfection of the healing 
art. He anticipated a millenial day in which sickness 
would yield to temperance and medicine, as certainly 
as the shades of night to the radiance of morn. Such 
benevolent sentiments were not the illusions of eccen- 
tricity. He believed he was justified in his hopes by 
the progress of medical knowledge, but his confidence 
and zeal were animated and sustained, like, the heart of 
Alexander, at Jerusalem, by the page of sacred pro- 
phecy. 

" Oh scenes surpassing fable, and yet true 

" Scenes of accomplish'd bliss! which who can see 

" Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 

" His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy. 

11 The creeping pestilence is driv'n away, 

" The breath of heav'n has chas'd it. In the heart 

" No passion touches a discordant string, 

" But all is harmony and love. Disease 

" Is not: the pure and uncontaminate blood 

•' Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age." 

Cowper 



21 



In the chamber of sickness, the ease and elegance 
of Dr. Rush's manners always created respect, while 
his unaffected sympathy constrained age to love him 
as a brother, and youth to rejoice in him as a parent. 
He had always at hand some soothing observation de- 
rived from his art as a physician, or his piety as a 
saint, to cheer the bosom of his patient. The sufferer 
almost forgot his pains, not with the horror which re- 
moves tooth-ache in the presence of a dentist, but with 
the pleasure which music supplies while it charms 
away the tarantula's bite. He marked the origin and 
progress of the diseases peculiar to his country, with 
the eye of an eagle and with the reflection of a sage. 
The pestilence, a visitation which the page of inspira- 
tion sublimely denominates " death" with " hell," or 
the grave in its retinue, he endeavoured to follow 
through its dismal meanders, and has pointed you 
to the ministers of heaven — the sky, the miasm, the 
neglected dock, or unventilated ship that produced it. 
When Philadelphia was stormed by this dread inva- 
der, he was not merely a centinel at his post, but a 
general in his ranks. He lost sight of his personal ex- 
posure in his solicitude for the recovery of his suffer- 
ing fellow citizens. His deliberate passion for the 
public good, no derision of his remedies, no misre- 
presentation of his principles could exterminate or 
diminish. He felt and acted to the wide extent of his 
capacity, as a disciple of that Son of man who came 
not to destroy men's lives, but to save thtm. 

In the chair of the Professor he appeared with pe- 
culiar advantage; His lectures exhibited a system of 
medicine that illumined the understanding of his 



22 

pupils, and will secure the investigation, perhaps the 
universal applause, of posterity. He decried nosology 
only because persuaded of its mischiefs. He recom- 
mended system and theory in medicine because he 
conceived its first principles as really ascertained, as 
are those of attraction and gravitation, the grand dis- 
covery of Newton, in the natural world; and because 
he saw the practice his theory suggested, expeditiously 
and safely lessen the afflictions of depressed humanity. 
It would ill become me, and certainly prove unavail- 
ing, to state my ideas of the system he taught. The 
world, and especially his country, have become fami- 
liar with the terms he employs. He has thrown open 
the volume of his ideas, and cheerfully left them to 
the perusal of Time, who " overthrows the illusions of 
opinion, but establishes the decisions of nature." 

We have seen that in his juvenile exercises the 
deceased discovered an attachment to oratory and 
belles lettres. This talent, ripened, peculiarly fitted 
him to become a public lecturer. He was greatly 
charmed with the eloquence of Whitfield, and has 
been thought, notwithstanding the compass of his 
voice was more limited, to have acquired, I suspect 
involuntarily, something of his emphasis and melodi- 
ous tone. He always felt an interest in the sentiments 
he delivered. He was master of the stroke that could 
grave truth on the memory, or throw into vibration 
all the strings of the heart. His last course of lectures 
are supposed, by his class, to have been equal in ani- 
mation and effect with any he ever delivered. 

I can never forget the close of his lectures in the 
spring of 1812. I quote merely from memory: "And 



23 

" now gentlemen,'* said he, " I bid you farewell. For 
" the first time this season I have met you with reluc- 
" tance. Accept of my thanks for your respectful and 
" orderly attention to the doctrines I have taught you. 
" Happy should I have been to have invited you fre- 
" quently through the winter to my family. I have 
" no doubt I should have been edified and pleased 
" with your company: but domestic affliction has pre- 
" vented me." He would have gone on, but his coun- 
tenance suddenly reddened, and the big tears fell from 
his eyes. The class recollected the trying circum- 
stances of a beloved son. Again he attempted to read 
— he could not. His aged hand raised insensibly with 
grief, fell heavy on the desk — he bowed to retire. 
Some of the class attempted to express their feelings 
by clapping, but they were not able. The emotion 
was not to be uttered. Every youthful eye seemed 
to say, venerable father, God Almighty be thy sup- 
porter! 

A more powerful touch of natural, unpremeditated, 
and penetrating eloquence I never witnessed. — 

Let it be remembered that Professor Rush owed 
none of his eminence to the diminutiveness of the 
talents of his associates. He was great in the midst of 
greatness. In the medical department of an univer- 
sity, where anatomy is made familiar by the prompt- 
ness of nomenclature, the accuracy of demonstration 
and the charms of physiology — where in surgery the 
lectures exhibit an informing simplicity, and the knife 
attempts with success every thing but miracle — where 
the materia medica, botany, and natural history are 
presented with the attractions which reading and judg- 



24 

ment, genius and eloquence supply — where chemistry 
and the remaining parts of a medical education are 
taught with correctness, respectability and effect — 
Dr. Rush maintained his elevation. Like a primal fixed 
star, aniid the host of heaven, he shone with a lustre 
wholly his own. 

It is remarked by Bishop Newton that " all persons 
" of any note and eminence bear a double character 
" in the world." This is true in relation to men dis- 
tinguished in medicine. Fable itself intimates the 
thought. Medea was reported to have boiled men 
alive, because she first recommended warm bathing. 
The success of iEsculapius in healing disease, is 
described as a crime sufficient to have incurred the 
indignation of the gods. But dismissing fable, He- 
rophiius, who first practiced the anatomical knife, 
is called by Tertullian " medicus aut lanius." Galen, 
on a visit to Rome, was stigmatized as a " theorist and 
magician." Sydenham was charged with murdering his 
patients by repeated and plentiful blood-letting, and 
Harvey, for discovering the circulation of the blood, 
lost his reputation and his practice. To state that Dr. 
Rush met with opposition and persecution, is to place 
him on the roll of his great predecessors. Had he been 
less eminent or laborious he had suffered less. 

His troubles were counterbalanced with public to- 
kens of respect. In 1793, in testimony of his impor- 
tant services during the yellow fever, the board of 
health presented him an elegant piece of plate, with an 
appropriate inscription. In 1805, he was addressed to 
answer certain queries which the Prussian govern- 
ment had ordered to be made on the subject of yellow 



25 

fever; as a return he received from the king, a coro- 
nation medal. The thanks of the king of Spain in 1806, 
were tendered him for his answer to some queries on 
the subject of the same disease. In 1807, from the 
queen of Etruria, a tribute to his talents, he received 
a gold medal. During the same year he became a 
member of the National Institute, class of fine arts, at 
Paris, and the year following a member of the Society 
of the School of Physic there. In 1811 he received a 
diamond ring from the Emperor of Russia, as a com- 
pliment to his medical character. While distinguished 
by these honours from abroad, at home he enjoyed the 
respect and love of thousands. 

In the temples of /Eseulapius tablets were hung up 
recording the diseases which his skill and genius had 
cured. Look up — behold the tablet containing the 
cures of the great Philadelphia physician. 

Read the testimony of a youth: 

" 'Twas in the circle of the gay I stood, 
" Death would have enter'd! Nature push'd him back, 
' Supported by a doctor of renown: 
" His point he gain'd."* 

See next the record of the poet: 

" How late I shuddered on the brink of fatel 
" That time is mine" O Rush! " to thee I owe; 
" Fain would I pay thee with eternity!" 

Here is the gratitude of age and weakness: 

" Alive by miracle! or what is next, 

" Alive" by Rush! " if I am still alive, 

" Who long have buried what gives life to live: 

" Firmness of nerve, and energy of thought." 

• It is scarcely necessary to observe that I am quoting from 
the Night Thoughts of Young. 

D 



26 

Another but the record is too long. It is a re- 
cord of nearly fifty years, and of thousands of cases; 
we cannot go through it. The names of many of you 
are there — mine is there. 

Above his eminence as a physician rises his cha- 
racter as a christian. It is observed by Dr. Lardner 
that Galen has twice mentioned the name of Christ in 
his treatise on the pulses; but how oft is this venerable 
name mentioned, referred to, and magnified in the 
publications and lectures of Dr. Rush. Convinced of 
the truth of the scriptures, he endeavoured to give 
them circulation. His defence of the use of the bible 
as a school book, published at a time when infidelity 
was preparing to condemn it to the flames, has been 
of singular benefit to his country. He was one of the 
first movers of the Bible Society of Philadelphia, draft- 
ed its constitution, and continued a vice-president un- 
til death. Aware of the sublime beauties recorded in 
the bible, he made such judicious selections, and 
offered such ingenious and pious expositions as im- 
parted to all his friends information and delight. 

His lectures acquired riches from the mines of in- 
spiration, which never could have been collected from 
any other source. It is not surprising that his touches 
are found so exquisitely fine, he dipped his pencil in 
the colours of heaven. Permit me to give you an ex- 
ample of his familiar and devotional habit of illus- 
trating the scripture. In Psalm iii. 5. the prophet 
says, " I laid me down and slept, I awoke, for the 
" Lord sustained me." " I laid me down," says our 
expositor, " what thousands the last night, from 
" affliction, could not lie down;" " I slept," " what 



27 

" thousands have been strangers to sleep; " I awoke," 
" how many have slept to wake no more. I owe my 
" safety to this, ' thou, Lord, sustained me.' " I could 
give you many interpretations of the sacred word, 
which I have heard him give, equally affecting and 
devout, with the specimen I have adduced. The 
doctor had intended as an employment in life's decline 
to have published a work which he meant to have 
called, if my memory be correct, " the Medicine of 
the Bible." He had read, and was justly dissatisfied 
with Dr. Richard Mead's Medicina Sacra. He saw its 
tendency to diminish respect for the sacred volume, 
and lamented it. For his work, the doctor had made 
considerable preparation, but his notes are too short 
for any one but himself to have completed. He in- 
tended to have shewn where cures were effected by 
natural means, and where miracle must be admitted; 
and to have demonstrated how much biblical physic 
harmonizes with the most useful and correct ideas of 
modern physicians. On his death- bed he expressed 
his regret, that the work must fall. The world and 
the church of God have to lament that the noble 
design has failed. Equal talents and reading for such 
a production will not easily be found. I have the hap- 
piness to present you with a specimen of its intended 
nature, from a letter with which the doctor honoured 
me, dated May 5, 1804. The following is extract: 

" New matter presses upon me every day I open 
" the bible. In reading the book of Nehemiah, a few 
" days ago, I was struck with the following passage: 
" ' Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the 
" wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes 



28 



" waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.'' Long or 
V distant walking always produces more or less swell- 
" ing in the feet. It was universal in the American 
" army during the revolutionary war, when new troops 
" were marched to the camp. Bruce tells us his feet 
" were not only swelled but ulcerated, in consequence 
" of marching over the sands of Nubia. The exemp- 
" tion of the Israelites from swelled feet over a moun- 
" tainous and often a stony wilderness was of course 
" as much a miracle as their clothes not waxing old." 

" 1 shall trespass upon your time," he adds, " while 
" I mention one more idea that has lately been sug- 
" gested to me, in reading the Old Testament. 

" The sight of a brazen serpent curing a disease 
" brought on by the bite of a living serpent, which 
" the former was made to resemble, is contrary to all 
" the laws of association which regulate the feelings of 
" the human mind, as far as they relate to health and 
" pleasure. It ought rather to have increased the dis- 
" ease it was prescribed to cure. Does not this suggest 
" the influence of the cross upon the minds of men, to 
" be contrary to all the natural and habitual disposi- 
u tions of the human heart? what! but divine wisdom 
" could have made the sight of a cross produce love, 
" or a dead body produce life? No wonder this mira- 
" culous process for curing the moral disorders of our 
" world appeared to be foolishness to the wisest nation 
" upon the face of the earth." 

He subjoins, " I am encouraged to proceed in my 
" inquiries, by recollecting a speech made to me by 
" the late Rev. Mr. Marshall, of this city, on his death- 
" bed. To a complaint I made of the unprofitable 



29 



•' issue of my public labours, he replied, i Don't be 
" discouraged, my dear friend, by the want of success 
11 in your attempts to do good. Remember the Sa- 
" viour of the world will say to his followers at the day 
" of judgment, not well done thou successful, but thou 
" faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
" Lord.'" 

Though the whole religious creed of Dr. Rush ac- 
corded not entirely with that of any christian denomi- 
nation, his cardinal opinions were altogether evangeli- 
cal. His dependence for life eternal was on the atone- 
ment of the Son of God. The memorials of the Sa- 
viour's death he partook of in his chamber the day 
before his decease. " The perfect morality of the gos- 
" pel," he says, in a letter to Dr. Belknap, " rests 
" upon a doctrine, which though often controverted* 
1 has never been refuted, I mean the vicarious life and 
" death of the Son of God. This sublime and ineffable 
" doctrine delivers us from the absurd hypotheses of 
" modern philosophers concerning the foundation of 
" moral obligation and fixes it upon the self- moving 
" principle of Love. The miraculous conception of 
" the Saviour of the world by a virgin is not more 
** opposed to the ordinary course of events, nor is the 
" doctrine of the atonement more above human reason 
" than those moral precepts which command us to 
" love our enemies, or to die for our friends." It is 
unnecessary to tell you he uniformly lived the life of 
a Christian. I will add, no minister of the word of 
God ever found embarrassment in his approach to a 
sick chamber where Professor Rush was physician. 



3& 

Among the virtues which characterize good men, 
some one, like a Penthesilca, is frequently seen more 
prominent than the rest. In Professor Rush, that vir- 
tue was benevolence. 

It was benevolence that induced him to visit the 
poor gratuitously; to leave often on their table, money 
to procure them support, while he like the man of Ross, 

" Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes and gives." 

Benevolence attached him to the worthy Abolition 
Society of this city, for improving the condition of the 
African race, to whose constitution his name is ap- 
pended, of which, since August, 1803, he has been 
unanimously chosen President at every annual elec- 
tion, and whose funds have been increased by his be- 
quests. It was this led him among the first of his fel- 
low-citizens to design the African episcopal church, 
and promote other similar establishments in the city. 
Of this, the grateful Africans were sensible, who soli- 
cited leave to walk to the grave before his body, hung 
their pulpits in mourning, and delivered their unlet- 
tered and affectionate eulogiums to his memory. It 
was benevolence suggested his elegant Dream on the 
Paradise of Negro Slaves. Benevolence inspired in his 
mind, the ardors of a Howard, and urged him first 
in the western world, to the attempt to alleviate 
the miseries and lessen the crimes of prisons. It was 
this constrained him to inquire into the effects of pub- 
lic punishments on society, and into the consistency 
of the punishment of murder by death, with reason 
and revelation. It was benevolence dictated his inge- 
nious plan of a peace office for the United States. 



31 



Benevolence converted into pleasure his visits to yon- 
der superb mansion of mercy, the Pennsylvania hos- 
pital. It was this rendered the cell of the maniac the 
seat of his humane observation, and prepared him to 
offer to the world his immortal work on " the Diseases 
" of the Mind." It was this, associated with his love 
of order, that during the thirty years he was physician 
to that excellent establishment, made him never ten 
minutes absent at the hour of prescribing, unless sick- 
ness obstructed. It was the spirit of benevolence 
prompted him to offer information to Europeans dis- 
posed to migrate to the United States. It was this 
led him to exhibit as a pattern to his classes the hu- 
manity of Boerhaave, who it is said in his attendance 
upon the poor, discovered more solicitude and punctu- 
ality than in his attendance upon his rich patients. 
Asked by a friend his reason for so doing, he answered, 
" I esteem the poor my most profitable patients, for 
" God is their paymaster."* It was this conducted Dr. 
Rush to the jail where lay confined for debt, a friend 
to w T hose family in prosperity he had long been physi- 
cian. He offered him his sympathies. He did more! 
he introduced into his hand a body of bank notes, 
amounting to more than the sums he had ever obtained 

* Dr. Rush not only attended ministers of the gospel agreeably 
to the beneficent habit of gentlemen of the medical profession, 
without reward, but he ever exempted from charges nurses and 
midwives. He considered them as the auxiliaries of physicians. 
A fact deserves to be stated which has come to my knowledge 
since the above address was delivered. Our deceased friend con- 
scientiously devoted the emoluments which on a sabbath arose 
from his services, exclusively to benevolent purposes. 



32 



for his services. He insisted on his receiving it anc 
departed, content with the approbation of him, who ir 
the judgment will say, « I was in prison, and ye came 
" unto me!" 

Where shall I close the detail!-His task is done 
He has bidden us adieu. He has ascended to receive 
" the blessing, even life for evermore!" His sons 
have caught his mantle! 

Gentlemen, the Graduates and Students in Medicine, 
of the University of Pennsylvania, 
I respectfully beg of you, to copy your bright ex- 
amplar. Imitate his habits of punctuality, his suavity 
of manners, his accuracy of observation, his unwearied 
perseverance. He saw, with Hippocrates, a physician's 
embarrassments, vita brevis—ars longa, occasio ceteris, 
expenmentum lubricum, judicium difficile, but he has 
left you an example, how much can be effected by 
patient labour. Read his three essays addressed to 
gentlemen, entitled Sermons on Temperance and Ex- 
ercise. You all loved him. May you imitate him in 
the fear of God, and in benevolence to men! that when 
you die, a grateful public may bedew your memory 
with tears, such as have been shed at your instructor's 
grave. 

When the melancholy intelligence arrived, that the 
hero and father of our country was no more, I remem- 
ber to have heard a-,? officer, as he dropt the honest 
tear, exclaim, - Weil, I rejoice I have been a soldier 
" under Washington." With a like sensibility, me- 
thinks I hear each of you utter, what you will often 
repeat, " I rejoice I have been a pupil under Rush." 



_8 My '13 

y 



